


Vault Hunter

by viperscreed



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 20:24:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6822736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viperscreed/pseuds/viperscreed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So this is a thing I wrote for self insert week 2016! I ended up have to kinda cut it short cause it was getting really long and I have other stuff to work on but i hope ya'll like a story about a version of myself that would willingly go to Pandora!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vault Hunter

The marauder swaggered along the platform, gun heavy in his arms after a long patrol and he stopped to pull himself up onto a crate. He looked up at the sky, the expanse painted in reds and purple as the sun started to disappear behind the horizon. He would be in pitch blackness soon especially since he was sitting in the shadow of the building his group was occupying.

His world was lit up as the incendiary barrel beside went off like a party popper. The marauder stumbled off the crate, shouting as he was quickly consumed by the flames. It only took seconds for the marauder to collapse to the ground.

Barrels all over the compound began to burst. Bandits were devoured by splashes of red, green and purple crossed with slashes of blue. More bandits were drawn into out by the sounds of mayhem and only a few made it much further before a bullet to the head sent them to the floor.

In less time than it took for the chaos to begin it was over. The compound covered in burnt streaks and corpses.

“My view is clear.”

Once that sentiment was echoed a fifth time the distant shuffle of the foot soldiers could be heard as they marched toward the compound. They would clear out the interior and retrieve whatever it was that they were here for.

Creed, one of the snipers, didn’t know what they were here for, wasn’t paid to know and honestly didn’t really care. Her job and that of the other snipers was mostly done at this point, they just had to make sure no one but the soldiers got in or out so she decided to take the moment to relax.

The cliff she was laying on was mostly ice and she could feel the chill seeping up into her belly even through her clothing and thick, hideously yellow armor. The cold air settled in her lungs and the heavy lethargy it created was perfect. She only had a handful of compliments for the planet and the chilly weather was one of them.

She shook her head to keep herself from falling asleep. Creed squeezed her fingers into her helmet to fiddle with a few buttons, disconnecting her Echo from the other snipers.

“Ay, pet project you there?” She had to beckon into her Echo a few more times before she got an answer.

“I’m here, I’m here.” The voice on the other end of the line sounded tired, probably had been asleep until now. “You can chill your tits.”

“Trust me they’re already pretty chilled.” Creed responded with a snort before getting down to business. “We’re clearing out some bandits, you need me to loot anything?”

“Some replacement tools would be nice but I can just pick those up at Sanctuary. How long until you have to go back?” Pet Project is sounding more awake now and Creed can hear metal being tossed around.

“We’ll be heading back in the morning.” Creed informed them and the other person made a disgruntled noise.

“You know this would go a lot faster if I had some help.” They went on and Creed sighed.

“Hire someone, I don’t really get to decide when I’m down here.” Creed replied and it was Pet Project’s turn to sigh.

“I’ll think about it, I just really want to get this thing built.” They went on, their voice tired again.

“I know, I’ll come give a hand next time.”

<> 

The ride back to Helios wasn’t long but it was incredibly early in the morning and cramped inside the armored shuttle. The soldiers were too well trained to snap at one another over something as petty as touching knees but that didn’t stop the displeased grunts and occasional shouldering.

Creed thankfully had gotten a seat toward the back allowing her a little extra leg room and the quickest escape once they had landed. She quickly checked in with her superior, letting the woman know she was still alive and uninjured. Once that was over she was free to go on her way and she made a b-line for the elevators so she could head back to her apartment.

Through the glass wall of the elevator she observed as yet another finger gun showdown took place in the Hub of Heroism. It looked like the rivalry between Accounting and R&D had come to a boil once again. A smile pulled at the sniper’s lips as she watched the grown men and women enthusiastically threw themselves to ground when they were struck by invisible bullets.

What a bunch of nerds.

Nerds who if they were handed a real gun would probably end up breaking their own fingers and probably wouldn’t last more than an hour on Pandora. She stood a little straighter, feeling the weight of her armor and a small bloom of pride formed in her chest.

The elevator pinged and Creed turned away from the glass to walk out into the hallway. On either side of her were rows of identical doors with numbered plaques overhead. Creed brought up her Echo and it went on for several long rings before her friend picked up.

“What?” The drawled out whine sounded in her ears, echoing a bit in her helmet.

“Were you still asleep, doesn’t your shift start in like an hour?” Creed inquired, her boots thumping against the floor as she walked toward her apartment.

“No I was just being lazy.” She admitted.

“Well I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch together?” Creed paused at a door, the plaque above labeled ‘752’ in bold, sleek writing.

“Sure, the Hub?”

“If you want, I mean I still have some Rakk meat in my freezer.” She snickered at the disgusted noise her suggestion earned. She slid her ID through a slot beside the doorknob and the lock clicked, the light flickering to green.

“I still don’t understand how you got that through security.”  Her friend said and Creed could hear the grimace in her voice.

“Girl I am security.” Creed joked as she stepped into her apartment.

“Yeah, yeah whatever, I’ll see you at four I need to get ready.”

“Alright I’ll see ya then.”

Creed booted the door shut with her heel and pulled off her helmet, cringing as sand trickled down her armor. She sighed dejectedly as she looked down at the carpet, she’d have to vacuum. The sniper sneered as she ran a hand through her short, brown curls and felt more sand on her scalp. She turned her helmet over in her hands as she pondered its quality, couldn’t have been high if it couldn’t even keep sand out.

She dropped her helmet on the floor, might as well keep the mess all in one place. She effectively unsnapped the straps that held her armor together setting each piece down in a semi neat pile. The sniper groaned with relief as she pulled off her boots, wiggling her toes in her thick socks causing the joints to pop.

Once all her armor was off she padded through the small apartment to her bathroom for a shower. She’d treat herself to a nap and a lot mindless Echonet browsing before lunch.

<> 

“Liz I think I’m in love.” Creed declared staring up in awe at a holographic billboard. The shorter woman followed the sniper’s gaze then looked back at her with skeptical concern.

“You’re not turning into one of those Jack fans right, the masks they wear are so creepy.” Liz asked her last few words a hissed whisper.

“What, no, not Jack you nerd, what he’s holding.” Creed replied pointing at the hologram indignantly.

Liz looked back at the image, brushing a few stray locks of blonde hair out of her face. Her expression doesn’t grow any more positive as she realizes what her friend is going on about.

“You don’t need another sniper rifle.” She told her flatly.

The hologram was a pretty standard ad, Handsome Jack posing with the newest ‘technical marvel’ and some caption at the bottom. The sniper rifle in his hands was red and uncharacteristically streamline for the Hyperion brand looking almost like something from a Maliwan line. In that bold Hyperion print the words ‘Shock & Awe, Crash & Burn’ was printed along the top and bottom of the image.

“But, but it can switch between shock and burn damage, you have no idea how useful that would be.” Creed gushed gaze flickering between her friend and longingly staring at the gun. Liz put a hand on the sniper’s shoulder and tried to steer her away from the ad.

“How many guns do you have?” She inquired hoping one day Creed would become aware of her gun hoarding issue. Creed paused, her thumb tapping across her fingers as she tried to take inventory of her collection with only her memory.

“Look that doesn’t matter, what matters is I don’t have that one.” Creed stated knowing the various stashes in her apartment were borderline overflowing with what she assured her friend were mostly trophies that she didn’t actually use.

“And you don’t need that one, come on, lunch.” Liz gave the sniper’s shoulder a light shove to get her to start moving in the direction of the counter. Creed eyes were fixed on the ad for a few steps, brow still furrowed in concentration. Maybe if she sold off some of her older models she could justify buying this one.

Creed’s order was simple, turkey and bacon on toasted Pandorian bread with no plant matter or sauce. Liz on the other hand ordered a sandwich with turkey, swiss cheese, lettuce among other vegetables and a combination of mustard and mayo. The sniper scrunched up her nose as she watched her friend make her order and Liz couldn’t help but role her eyes at the other’s finicky nature. She had tried a piece of nearly all the wildlife on Pandora yet vehemently refused to mix any type of meat with any type of cheese or anything else really.

“You’re such a baby.” Liz chided the younger woman and got a stuck out tongue in response, not the most dignified behavior for a Helios guard but she was off the clock.

“You’re all the ones with the weird tastes.” Creed replied as they took their seats. She popped open her sandwich and pulled out a turkey slice, rolling it in her fingers a bit before taking a bite.

There was a long stretch of comfortable silence between the pair as they ate. People bustled around them, many with much shorter lunch breaks or interns hustling to get coffee for their higher ups. The sound that brought Creed’s attention from her now bacon sandwich was Liz clearing her throat.

“So I want to ask you something…” She began and Creed swallowed her mouthful of food.

“No such thing tmi, shoot.” The sniper allowed. She meant that statement quite literally nothing was off limits or too personal as far as she was concerned when it came to Liz.

“It’s about your vault hunter days.” Liz continued but didn’t ask her question as if giving Creed a chance to redact her statement but the sniper just shrugged. “It’s just that there seemed to be a lot of drama around that time and I didn’t want to bring it up if it was still a sore spot-“

“Ask.” Creed dragged the word out and waved her fingers at her friend.

“Alright, ah, what exactly, you know, happened?”  She inquired carefully. Creed dropped her sandwich onto her plate and rubbed her perpetually cold fingers together.

“The short of it is I went back to Sanctuary after getting my shit kicked in at the Caustic Caverns and then me and Roland got into a big fuck off argument over how we should be handling the whole Jack situation and it was all downhill from there, well until Jack decided to try throwing a paycheck at me instead of bullets then it started going back uphill, for me anyway.” The sniper explained going with the short version since Liz’s lunch break would be ending soon. Roland could be impossible when he wanted to be especially when one of his ‘soldiers’ was kicking back.

The first few months after she had ditched Sanctuary in a huff had been some of the most suspenseful of her life. She expected to leave her hut one day and be blown away by Lilith, Roland or a moonshot but that day had never come. Pandora hadn’t been leveled either so she assumed whatever Jack’s plan had been had either fell through or Roland had found someone else to handle it.

After a few weeks of complete radio silence was when Jack had called with his offer. Creed had honestly expected it to be a trap at first, wouldn’t have been the first one Jack had tried to spring on her but she had gone anyway. Her second suspicion had been that he planned to work her to death or try to pin her against her former comrades. That hadn’t been it either, she had been assigned to regular grunt work which after the chaos that was Pandora she had been more than happy to do.

Liz had been working a desk near one of Creed’s posts and after spotting some nerdy memorabilia in her work space the ex-vault hunter had struck up a conversation. Her life had smooth sailing since that point and the sniper couldn’t have been more content.

Liz’s lips parted presumably to ask follow up questions when her Echo went off, giving her an alert that her break was nearly over.

“Ugh, I have to go but I want to know more the Roland argument later, if that’s okay.” She said piling all her garbage onto her tray before she stood.

“Anytime boo.” Creed responded, wishing her friend ‘good luck’ before she walked away to toss her trash into one of the bins. Creed picked up her sandwich and was about to take another bite of it when her own Echo went off. She answered it and waited for a name and face to show up on her HUD.

_“Hey there princess.”_

The sniper’s expression dropped when she heard the voice coming through her Echo. How did this man know her contact information and for the record how did most of the people who contacted her. She didn’t get to ponder long before Jack started talking again.

 _“Listen as funny as it would be to have you dragged up here I think everything would go a lot faster if you just dragged yourself up here, okay cupcake?”_ Jack’s tone was sickeningly sweet and just as fake as those cheap candies they used to sell in the gas stations on Pandora.

“Understood sir.” Creed responded simply.

_“Okay see you soon.”_

Her Echo disconnected and Creed stood with a sigh. She dumped her wrapper into a bin as she munched on her sandwich, placing the plate and tray on top of the bin.

Creed grumbled around her lunch as she trudged toward the elevators. This must have been it, she was going to go up there and he was going to send her on a mission to kill one of her old allies or maybe just to sabotage them. She sighed softly but she supposed it would have happened at some point with or without Jack.

It took surprisingly little time for the elevator to reach the floor Jack’s office was on. Creed walked forward knowing the longer she took the more shit Jack would give her.

“Hey Eren, how’s life?” She greeted the guard as she approached the metal detector.

“She sent me a video of her doing the neighbor, I sent her a video of me doing my partner.” He responded barely looking up from his magazine. Creed let out a low whistle, that wasn’t the answer she thought she’d get.

“I uh, guess that’s one way to bring up a divorce.” She said wondering if the next drink she bought him should be celebratory or not.

“Eh I was just going to mail her the papers but she wanted to make it personal.” He shrugged and halfheartedly waved her through. “Jack already told me he’s expecting you just go on through.”

“Aight, we need to hang later.” She told him as she passed through the metal detector.

Eren made a noncommittal noise and Creed continued on her way, she’d talk to him more after whatever Jack wanted was settled. It was short walk from the checkpoint to the doors of Jack’s office and before she could lift her unoccupied hand to knock gears started to turn pulling the doors open with a creak.

She wandered in glancing up at the huge statues of Jack’s head on either side of the walkway. The room was unreasonably huge despite the room really only containing Jack’s desk and the statues, the best feature had to be the giant window and its view of Elpis.

“Did I uh, interrupt something?” Jack’s voice sliced through her distracted state and she focused on the man as he gestured to her, standing in his office in her casualwear and holding the nub of a sandwich.

“Kinda.” She responded and teetered her hand before taking another bite of her lunch. She should have probably been more scared of him then she was but honestly after you’ve used a pistol to uncuddle yourself from a Wormhole Thresher a dude in a tacky, yellow chair wasn’t that intimidating.

“Is that just bacon on brea- whatever we have business.” He interrupted himself before he got too distracted. “Well, like all Hyperion employees we’ve been tracking your movements and I wanted to interrogate you about some things, sweetheart.”

“Jack, I’ve told you before I’ve had nothing to do with any of those assassination attempts.” Creed quickly defended herself. She thought after nearly a year of service he’d stop suspecting her every time someone tried to poison his coffee.

“Now I’m suspicious but we’ll talk about that later, I want to talk to about your behavior on Pandora.” Jack’s smirk pulled farther as the ex-vault hunter visibly bristled. “I’d hate to learn that after all this time you’re siding with those bandits.”

“You know how I feel about Pandora.” Creed responded crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yeah, yeah we’ve got your statement written down somewhere, ‘fuck that planet’ I think it was, by the way language kitten.” The man teasingly scolded her but seriously, that had been her statement of a formal document.

“My stance hasn’t changed since I brought on board.” She assured him. A creeping feeling was crawling up her spine as he continued to leer down at her his grin falling.

“Who’s Pet Project?” Jack inquired mismatched eyes bearing down on the sniper. Creed clenched her teeth to keep from nervously swallowing.

“A friend who’s helping me with a little project down on the surface, nothing important.” She shrugged.

“You’re being vague cupcake, maybe you’d like to elaborate on this ‘little project’.” Jack’s hand disappeared beneath his desk reappearing with a pistol. His grip was lazy on the handle and there was a clack as the metal of the barrel was rested against the marble of his desk. Creed’s brown eyes flickered to the gun for a moment before returning to the CEO’s face, the one downside to being on Helios is that she couldn’t carry her guns around.

“It’s just what it sounds like, a pet project, me and my friend are testing the possibility of domesticating skags. We thought if we could make them slightly less murderous they’d make good guard animals.” Creed explained her arms uncrossing to rest her hands on her hips.

“What?” Jack’s voice was flat, unamused and one of his perfect brows arched skeptically.

“I have a lot of animal husbandry knowledge up here, would probably have some more useful know how if, you know, I wasn’t blown up on a train awhile back.” Creed said tapping a finger against her temple. After Jack’s attempt on her life huge blank spots had been blasted into her memory, he had a decent idea of where she was from and how she had come to be a vault hunter but the finer details were gone.

“The skags don’t meet all six criteria for domestication but nothing on Pandora does so we’re hoping that after a few generations and some intense culling we’ll have something we can handle. Of course we’re also worried about genetic bottlenecking but as it stands we’ll just have to hope their tolerance for inbreeding isn’t low until we get a more substantial population.” Creed hoped that if she used enough big words that had nothing to do with tech that Jack would just tell her to fuck off and she could go about her day.

“Okay, okay I get you think you’re clever but listen sweetheart, I’m gonna figure out what you’re up to and the second I smell bandit I’m gonna put a bullet in that little addled brain of yours.” Jack hissed twirling the pistol’s barrel in her direction.

“I assure you, you’ll find nothing uncouth about my hobby.” Creed replied and Jack desperately wanted to shoot her. He had learned his lesson though, all the wildlife on Pandora and a small country’s worth of bandits had all been steamrolled by this vault hunter that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to posture.

He pulled the trigger, the bullet whizzing past Creed and a smirk tugged at his lips when she flinched even if it was only slightly. She was wearing a shield, Hyperion issued, but with only her turret in her back pocket she certainly felt a little vulnerable without a gun.

“Alright you can skedaddle just remember,” Jack paused for effect and all the screens in the room flickered on to display a live feed of Creed’s face. “I’m watching you vault hunter.”

The sniper swallowed her retort, she didn’t want to stay here longer then she had to. She turned on her heel and walked quickly out of the man’s office.

“He mad?” Eren asked glancing up, happy that he didn’t have to call the janitors even if he didn’t show it.

“He mad.” She replied completely abandoning her earlier plans of continuing a conversation with him.

She had some calls to make.

<> 

Problems started to arise immediately after her meeting with Jack. She had tried to transfer money out of her account, couldn’t. She tried to volunteer for a mission to Pandora, learned she was indefinitely suspended. Any ability to contact anyone outside of Helios was gone.

Panic itched under her skin and she spent more time than ever at Liz’s apartment. The sniper found the other woman’s presence uncannily calming and it was the only thing she could think to do to keep her blood pressure down.

She didn’t tell Liz about Pet Project, it was safer for her if she didn’t. Creed merely requested her company when their schedules aligned to watch poorly made movies and to smother the smaller woman with hugs while she tried to cook. It was easy to forget how nice a regular companion was when you did mercenary work.

“So what was Roland like?” Liz inquired not looking up from her fancy keyboard to where the sniper lay on her bed behind her. One of Creed’s eyes cracked open and she groaned as she sat up. She gave a thoughtful hum as she considered her answer.

The Roland situation hadn’t been brought back up since their lunch together.

“He’s like a guard dog a rich family bought before they disappeared, like the family’s gone and so is most of their valuables but the mutt’s still out there patrolling the yard. No one has wanted to live there for the past twenty or so years but he won’t let it go.” Creed rambled, her last experience with the man still fresh in her mind.

“Well, I meant his personality.” Liz elaborated.

“Oh, he was alright, kind of a dick but mostly okay. He’s a really good soldier.” Creed answered giving credit where she thought it was do.

“And Lilith?” The blonde pressed on. It was difficult to get accurate information about vault hunters up on Helios as all the intel had to go through the Propaganda Department first so it made for some pretty hot gossip.

“She was pretty cool, had me exterminate a cult for her once.” The sniper replied, she always avoided going into the gory details since she knew her friend wouldn’t appreciate that much.

“What?” Liz whipped around at that, eyes wide. She was well aware that Creed had killed people, a lot of people, she didn’t like thinking about and there were still times when the sniper’s stories surprised her.

“It was a cult, uh, about her so I can see why it made her uncomfortable.” Creed went on vaguely gesturing with her hands. “People were setting themselves on fire and everything.”

“Do… do people actually do stuff like that or are you just messing with me?” Liz questioned looking a little fearful of the answer.

“Oh no it happens, skin pizzas are a thing to.” Creed regretted her oversharing a little when she saw her friend turn a little green but that was quickly smothered by her amusement. She reached over to playfully shove the other. “Understand why I so ready to hop off that rock?”

“Y-yeah… you never ate that right?” Liz inquired knowing the ex-vault hunter was pretty indiscriminate when it came to her meats.

“Of course not, the psychos never invited me to their parties.” Creed joked with a laugh and Liz followed along uncertain if her friend was being serious or not.

Creed stayed there for as long as she could but eventually it got late and they both had work to do in the morning. The sniper slinked back to her apartment, quiet as to not wake any of the other employees and tried not to drown in her worry now that she didn’t have anything to drown it.

<> 

Three and a half weeks ticked by leaving the sniper in fits of anger and hopelessness that were broken up by long hours in Liz’s apartment. When the blonde wasn’t available Creed would default to pacing around her room with music blaring into her ears.

Then one morning with the same abruptness that her connection to Pandora was cut off it was brought back. Creed only learned of her reinstated privileges when she learned she was scheduled for guard duty on one of Hyperion’s bases. She’d be down there for around a month, it was pretty isolated with threshers being the biggest threat to the compound.

“You’ll take a light runner to clear out the wildlife like usual.” It was a quick order from her commanding officer. Creed simply nodded, her mind racing with concern. If Pet Project was hurt she didn’t know what she’d do with herself.

Creed made a b-line for the catch-a-ride, claiming she missed joy riding too much to rest when the other’s asked where she was going so soon after landing. She tore off her helmet once she was in the light runner, tossing it into the passenger’s seat. The sniper had looked over her armor multiple times but couldn’t find anything that looked like a tracker.

The light runner’s tires squealed as she flew out of the catch-a-ride station. The frame of the vehicle jolted when she rolled over a skag but that didn’t do much to slow the ex-vault hunter.

The runner shrieked to halt when Creed suddenly hit the brake parking the vehicle on a small outcropping. She violently started to take off her armor, throwing all of it into the passenger seat with her helmet. The sniper popped open the glove box to switch out her shield for her old Dahl model and her Echo that was a few models behind what was current.

She checked to make sure all her Hyperion gear was off her person before she got out of the runner. The sniper hit the ground running with a pistol in her grip. Creed jumped the outcropping down into the gorge landing with a grunt. She felt a lot lighter without the armor and quite a bit more vulnerable, almost like her vault hunter days.

After a few minutes of running the gorge opened up into wide open plains. The roof of a hut could be seen settled between some hills. Creed rushed forward, adrenaline thrumming in her veins and her mind was filled with images of the carnage she expected to find.

“Trish!” She yelled the woman’s name while there was still a few yards between her and the hut.

A few more shouts of the name drew out a woman with dark hair and bright eyes. Trish’s eyes were wide and panicked but thankfully as far as Creed could tell she was fine.

“What, what’s wrong?” The woman asked looking around for any source of danger. Trish was nearly sent to the ground when the sniper collided with her.

“You’re okay?” Creed asked suddenly pushing her back to hold Trish at arm’s length to examine her.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Trish quickly replied shaken by the other’s behavior.

“Jack found out about Pet Project and all my access to you got cut off and and…” Creed continued to babble until Trish shushed her.

“I’m fine, nothing weird’s gone down, we’ll just have to buckle down and get this finished.” Trish calmed the sniper and Creed nodded, swallowing thickly.

“I’ll have to be back in the morning but I’ll work through the night, have you looked into hiring anyone?” Creed didn’t know any of the tech shit that would be required to put together the beacon but she could put a wrench to bolts.

“Yeah, yeah I have and I’ve called the bus company, if we can get a secure landing area together sometime this week we can start getting people off the ground next month.” Trish informed her. The only company that would regularly send buses to Pandora wasn’t the most outstanding company but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

A weak laugh left Creed’s throat at the news and she tugged the other back into a hug. That was some of the best news she had heard in a while. More hands would make this go a lot faster and could definitely keep the area a lot safer.

Perhaps it was time to call Roland, maybe this time she could convince him Pandora wasn’t worth fighting for especially when the Edens were so close.


End file.
